CD Projekt Red pulled Cyberpunk 2077 back from the depths of Tartarus after its rocky launch. While it took years of effort to regain consumer trust, today, Cyberpunk 2077 is hailed as one of the best action RPGs ever. It’s so good that players have spent hundreds of hours in Night City and can’t help but want more.
Luckily, a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, codenamed Orion, was announced in 2022. The development team has since grown in size, and you can bet it’s coming up with new mechanics. Having said that, there’s so much the Cyberpunk community wants in the sequel. From a dedicated third-person perspective to crew creation, here’s a look at ten mechanics Orion needs to include.
Wall Running
You might not know this, but Cyberpunk 2077 was supposed to have wall running as one of the main means of traversal. You could scale across walls, scan enemies, and then take them out silently. But just before Cyberpunk hit shelves, CDPR removed the wall-running mechanic due to design choices. Of course, adding a mechanic like this is no easy task. A feature like this in an open-world game requires every single wall to be placed in a specific way, making it difficult to pull off. So, it’s understandable why it did what it did.
Hopefully, CDPR figures out a way to make it work with the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, Orion. Wall running opens up so many more ways to play, both inside and outside of combat. And besides, parkouring across Night City for hours on end sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.
Flying Vehicles and Customization
Many mods for Cyberpunk 2077 already allow you to take vehicles into the air. However, Night City wasn’t built with flying cars in mind, so the experience is less than ideal. Project Orion is probably going to be set a couple, if not more than fifty, years after Cyberpunk 2077.
The Cyberpunk sequel should heavily use flying cars. Not only is it right, given the setting, but it also adds a layer of verticality to the game. You can access new locations, have flying chases, and just get across the map faster. Flying shouldn’t be the only means of transportation, but it should be one of them.
Secondly, vehicle customization should be brought in because, let’s be real, who doesn’t like customizing their car? Imagine adding guns, RGB lights, and spoilers to your vehicle and then taking it out for a spin. That’s exactly what we need in Orion.
Verticality In World Design
Most of the key segments in Cyberpunk 2077 are on ground level in Night City. You occasionally visit topside apartments, but that’s in scripted missions. Otherwise, they aren’t naturally accessible. With verticality in world design, you get a denser map, more zones of interest, and, of course, the foundation for flying vehicles.
Verticality can be implemented in different ways, with some of the regions being underground, aquatic, or aerial in design. We can have separate cities that promote different means of traversal, or we could have ones that stretch as high as it does across itself. In either case, it opens up so many possibilities and is a must to consider for Orion.
Memorable and Difficult Boss Fights
There’s a consensus amongst the community regarding the boss fights in Cyberpunk 2077: they are all painfully forgettable and mundane. Not a single boss across the upwards of fifty hours of playtime makes you think outside of the box. For example, from the first Cyberpsycho you encounter to the final boss, Adam Smasher, all of the bosses can be best described as bullet sponges. You just have to fill them with holes to win.
There needs to be variety in the boss fights of Cyberpunk Orion. Bosses need to be unique from each other. Each should have a different set of weaknesses. Guns should be effective on one, while stealth or melee works on the other. It shouldn’t all just be run and gun as if it were Bethesda’s DOOM, because it is not. Instead, CDPR needs to be creative and make the player think on the fly. By doing so, players will be forced to adapt their strategies according to the boss they’re facing, making the fights tougher.
Co-Op Would Be Nice
It’s tough imagining how an online co-op would work in a game like Cyberpunk. But where there is a will, there’s a way. One possible iteration of co-op in the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel can be based on GTA Online. Imagine racing across the Night City with your friends, taking out gangs, and just having a blast.
It could be something like a completely separate mode from the main story where you can access new mission types. These missions would be based in the same city but are scripted in such a way that you’d need a team to get through them. Of course, there are other modes to be hopeful for, like PvP and duels. However, asking for an online co-op is already stretching things a bit.
Power Armor Suits
Cyberware was one of the best mechanics in Cyberpunk 2077. You could customize everything from your legs to your eyes, unlocking new abilities like double jump or highlighting enemies in the process. It’s a given that Cyberpunk Orion will have new cyberware, but that shouldn’t be all.
Futuristic mech suits or power armor seem like the next logical step in the evolution of mankind. A mech that would intensify combat, put pressure on enemies, and have unique enemy kill animations. It’d be a blast to maneuver. Nothing too flashy like the Power Rangers or Iron Man, just something strong enough to pack a punch and make combat satisfying.
Third-Person Perspective
A third-person perspective is the most demanded mechanic by the Cyberpunk community. A majority of the players are happy experiencing Night City in first-person, but then there’s the minority. For them, the third-person perspective feels more immersive and is a must-have for such a game. And if you look at it statistically, even the minority of Cyberpunk players wanting third-person are in the hundreds of thousands. So, not catering to their needs would be a shame.
While a third-person perspective has already been achieved via modding, Cyberpunk wasn’t meant to be played like that, so not everything looks right. Hopefully, CDPR chucks in the highly requested third-person view in Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, Orion. Otherwise, many in the community might riot.
Virtual Stores
Going into stores to purchase gear has a vibe, but you’d think home delivery would be a thing in the year 2077. A virtual atelier where you can buy stuff quickly at your apartment would make life a lot easier in Cyberpunk. The continuous back-and-forth between shops wastes a lot of time. Going into shops is cool occasionally, but it gets tiresome once the novelty factor wears out.
In between missions, you often found yourself in V’s apartment. A virtual shop that can be directly accessed from your apartments would be invaluable. It’s a mechanic the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Orion needs. Now, there is an argument that this incentivizes not visiting the city shops in person. Doing something to counteract that, like raising the prices of items at the virtual apartment shop, would balance things out nicely. Now, you can either save time or money, but you’ll always have a choice.
Ability To Start A Crew
V quickly outgrows everyone around him. By the end of 2077, he’s a Night City legend. The thing about legends is though, they all have a crew. Just look at Johnny Silverhand, Rogue, and David Martinez.
Cyberpunk’s sequel needs to add a crew creation mechanic. Something that allows you to recruit characters you meet during the story and later call on them for support. This also leads us to another mechanic Orion needs: gang wars.
Gang Wars
The Voodoo Boys, Maelstrom, Animals, Tyger Claws, and countless gangs were roaming about in Night City. But apart from the usual run-and-gun encounters, there weren’t any major plotlines surrounding them. Orion should build on Cyberpunk’s rogues gallery. Giving them strongholds in districts and then letting the new protagonist and their crew fight them for control would be spectacular.
The gangs could even fight each other in turf wars. Liberating districts would unlock new vehicles, powers, and allow you to recruit new crew members. There are countless ways a system like this can benefit Cyberpunk Orion. So, let’s hope that CDPR takes heed and listens to the community.
If CD Projekt Red were to add all these features to Orion and get them right, everything that went wrong with Cyberpunk 2077 would be even more forgiven. With the comeback that Cyberpunk had, it isn’t likely that CDPR will disappoint their fanbase. However, with the release date of Orion nowhere near as of now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
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